Hanging out in the Scilly Isles

After 46 hours sailing from the Solent we were ready for a couple of days taking it easy in the Scilly Isles before pushing on for Brittany. Our first night was tied up to a mooring buoy in St. Mary’s Pool about a 10 minute row ashore. Jane announced she was in the rowing team back at Durham so suddenly regrets of not bringing the outboard for the dinghy disappeared.

The small harbour of Hugh Town was tiny and highly centred around tourism as, we found out later, are all of the islands. We had a couple of pints of Cornish ale in the Mermaid Inn and a couple of games of pool. Lou (hampered by Mel) still managed to thrash Joe & I.

Hugh Street and Lower Strand, Hugh Town

After about three failed attempts to book a table in locally acclaimed restaurants (don’t leave it to the last minute like we did) we found a table at the Atlantic in the bar area. The food was superb – calamari to die for and superb fish pie. The pub filled up around 9pm for the pub quiz – many patrons taking it very seriously.

The row back (in two legs) to the yacht was in the dark weaving our way through all the other boats to the furthest possible mooring. We crashed into our bunks straight away still very tired from the journey.

Well stocked shelf of single malt whiskies

The next morning after a long long lie in we enjoyed a huge cooked breakfast and left our moorings to pilot north between the islands of Bryher and Tresco. On a rising tide we were able to cross the drying banks to the moorings of New Grimsby Harbour.

Hanging off the side to make sure we had a full round turn on the mooring buoy

Ashore that afternoon we enjoyed a walk the the New Inn and again the food was superb. There is a big contrast between the scenery in overcast and full sunshine – and it really is simply beautiful. I’d heard before the trip that it would be but the Scilly Isles exceeded expectations by a huge margin. It reminded me of Cornwall but the remoteness and lack of people made all the difference.

The moorings between Tresco and Bryher

The next morning we had a go at not catching any fish with our rod and tackle and I finished off the passage plan to Brittany.